The present invention relates to a reversible wristwatch including a first case enclosing elements able to control a first display and a second case enclosing elements able to control a second display, said first and second cases each having a back cover and being placed back-to-back.
Several reversible watches which more or less answer the definition given above have already been proposed.
The watch disclosed in Swiss Patent No. 646 56 is formed of two parts secured to each other and each constituting one of the faces of the reversible watch.
These two parts form a single water-resistant case which is pivoted along its six o""clock-midday axis on two bars each accommodating one of the ends of a wristband. The case includes two lateral covers hinged to the case at one of their ends, covering the lateral edges of the watch case in the operating position. In this construction, the respective middle parts of the two parts of the watch are secured to each other by means of screws. In general it is to be noted that the proposed construction is complicated and requires many constituent parts both for securing the middle parts and for attaching the ends of the wristband to the assembly thereby formed. Should the two parts of the watch require batteries to operate, it is difficult to see how access could be obtained to the batteries without unscrewing all the screws connecting these two parts beforehand, which cannot easily be done by an ordinary user. European Patent No. 0 359 181 discloses a watch having a case with two displays arranged on opposite faces, this case being mounted by a hinge on a base plate secured to the wristband. This enables the case to be raised to read the display placed on the back, but the watch can obviously not be worn in this position during other activities, since it would quickly be damaged. U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,381 discloses a reversible watch having at least two opposite faces and at least one movement. The middle part is secured to an extending wristband by means of horns so that the wearer of the watch can pass from one face to the other without having to take the watch off his wrist. However the description relies on movements mounted in a single case and there is thus no reason to find a solution for attaching two distinct cases, which are themselves secured to a wristband.
Swiss Patent No. 680 329 also shows a reversible timepiece of the type indicated above in the preamble. This article includes a central portion on each side of which is mounted a complete watch with its dial directed outwards. Each watch is hinged on this central portion, this latter having horns for attaching a wristband. It is clear that this arrangement leads to a watch of significant thickness, given the presence of the central portion.
A reversible watch by the name ofxe2x80x9cReversoxe2x80x9d (registered trademark) is also known, made of a single case engaged on a cradle-shaped support provided with slide-ways, the support being in turn secured to the wristband. The proposed construction leads to a rather thick watch which is generally only provided with a mechanical movement, since the use of an electric movement would require, to replace the battery, either opening the case, or a lateral battery hatch if both sides of the watch were each fitted with a display. A watch of this type is disclosed, in its simplest embodiment, in French Patent No. 712 868.
It thus appears that the state of the art in field of reversible wristwatches proposes on the one hand watches with a single case, and on the other hand watches with two cases. The first category has the drawback of a generally high cost, because of the special construction of the double face case and, as appropriate, movements with double face displays, as well as difficulties concerning battery replacement in the case of electric movements. The second category, illustrated by Swiss Patent No. 680 329, has in particular the drawback that the assembly is of considerable thickness and the mounting of the cases on a common support is complicated.
The present invention concerns a watch in the second category and proposes creating a watch of moderate thickness which can be both manufactured at moderate cost and be very comfortable to use. Moreover, in the case of watches including electric batteries, this means creating a construction which allows easy replacement of the battery by the user, without the aesthetic appearance of the watch and the manufacturing cost being particularly affected.
The invention therefore concerns a reversible wristwatch of the type indicated in the preamble, characterised in that each of the two cases includes at least one securing element arranged to be attached in a removable manner to a corresponding securing element of the other case, to secure the cases to each other in a position in which their respective back covers are adjacent.
Any intermediate element such as a support arranged between the two cases, can thus be omitted, which substantially reduces the thickness of the assembly and simplifies the final assembly. Each of the two cases may advantageously be individually sealed and be designed from a common type of mono-face watch case, to which one need only add the elements for securing it to the other case. These securing elements may be concealed in the region of the back cover of the cases or may be made close to the edges of the cases in a barely visible or invisible form. Moreover, if one of each of the cases has to contain an electric battery the back cover of the case in question may includes an ordinary battery hatch, which will be concealed by the other case but will remain easily accessible to the user because the latter may easily separate the cases by dismantling their mutual securing means. Battery replacement will then be performed as in an ordinary watch.
In a particular embodiment, the securing elements of each of the cases include horns through which bars pass, these bars acting both as means for securing the first case to the second and as means for securing each of the ends of the wristband to the assembly formed by said first and second cases.
Otherwise the securing elements may be arranged on the back cover of the case, for example in the form of sliding assembly elements of the dovetail type.
In another particular embodiment, the two cases secured to each other form a movable case, which is mounted so as to pivot and slide on a support attached to a wristband, the support having two parallel lateral bars between which the movable case is placed in two mutually opposite use positions, positions in which two opposite lateral faces of the movable case extend along said bars. An advantageous arrangement in this case is for each support bar to be provided with an articulation trunnion, which is engaged in a slide-way of the corresponding lateral face of the movable case, and in that said slide-way is formed by juxtaposing two recesses of L-shaped profile, each arranged along an edge of the back cover of each case. Each trunnion may be secured to a removable part held by means of a wristband attachment bar, so that the user can easily remove the movable case from the support to separate the two cases, for example to change one of them or to replace a battery.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following description, made with reference to the annexed drawings and presenting by way of explanatory but non-limiting example, various advantageous embodiments of the invention, wherein, in such drawings: